Sanders Fighting to End of Primary; "Can't Snap" Fingers & Tell Supporters to Back Clinton

I don't want this point to get lost. It was made in a longer piece I recently did, but it's important as a stand-alone.

After the New York primary, Bernie Sanders took a day off and appeared, to me at least, to take a moment to get his feet back under him (I like the athlete metaphor since he is one). Then he came back strong with these two messages:

I'm fighting until the last vote is cast (so don't keep asking me).

I'll back Clinton if she's the nominee, but she has to earn my supporters on her own.

I think these will be his last words through the last contest in June, and I think we can count on him to stick to them. After that, the convention (what I've been calling the "crossroad in Philadelphia") will be what it is, based on the landscape in July. (For thoughts on that landscape, see here.)

Watch the Sanders interview with George Stephanopoulos above for the direct account. Yahoo News on that interview (my emphasis):

Following Bernie Sanders’ loss to Hillary Clinton in the New York primary last week, his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, vowed that the Vermont senator would take his fight to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July.

But on Sunday, Sanders would only look as far ahead as California’s Democratic primary on June 7.

Stephanopoulos: If the contest doesn't go the way you hope, will you be able to follow the Clinton model of 2008, which she talked about on this "GMA" town hall this week, and make an enthusiastic case for her the way she pushed for President Obama?

Sanders: That is totally dependent on what the Clinton platform is and how she responds to the needs of millions of Americans who are sick and tired of establishment politics and establishment economics.

I can't snap my finger and tell people what to do. What I will do, is do everything I can to make sure that somebody like a Donald Trump, or some other right-wing Republican, does not become the president of the United States. We don't need more tax breaks for billionaires, more cuts to Social Security and Medicare, more ignoring the fact — Republicans don't accept the reality of climate change, let alone being prepared to do something about it.

So I will do everything that I can to defeat any Republican candidate. If Secretary Clinton is the nominee, she will have to make the case to the American people, not just to my supporters but all Americans, that she is prepared to stand up to the billionaire class....

I hope you noticed his emphasis of my second bulleted point — "[Making an 'enthusiastic case for her'] is totally dependent on what the Clinton platform is and how she responds to the needs of millions of Americans ... I can't snap my finger and tell people what to do. ... If Secretary Clinton is the nominee, she will have to make the case to the American people, not just to my supporters but all Americans, that she is prepared to stand up to the billionaire class..."

Thus the battle continues, with Peter Daou saying on behalf of the Clinton camp that it's time for the mountain to come to Mohammad instead. Thus the battle continues. I wouldn't be surprised if the current Clinton third-quarter surge didn't go to their hubristic heads. If so, that won't work out as they want it to, I think, as the delegate game enters the fourth, pre-Philadelphia, quarter.

One step at a time is the smartest way to play this. No one can suss the situation in Philadelphia until we get there.

(Blue America has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president. If you'd like to help out, go here. If you'd like to "phone-bank for Bernie," go here. You can volunteer in other ways by going here. And thanks!)

He is a pouting old fart..We know what the MESSAGE is. He has beeen saying it over and over and over..He needs to get as far away from the democrats as possible.I can't believe he has run on the party as a big FAKE!

I'm phone banking this Saturday. If Hillary gets the nomination maybe I'll go to Philly and stand in the streets to make sure she's hears what she has to do to get my vote. If I do eventually vote for her I'll be holding my nose and barfing a bit in my mouth. If she does become president she can expect people in the streets.

He indeed can't snap his fingers & get us to vote for her. Most of us won't, I suspect. Even if she suddenly realized that "fall in line, you must vote for me or you suck" is not a very good strategy to win over skeptical voters and started adopting Bernie's platforms, I don't think many of us would trust her to keep those positions. I certainly wouldn't.

Trump is more likely to stop or void the TPP & less likely to invade other countries to prove how tough he is. That we actually have no idea what he will do is not a whole lot scarier than having a pretty good idea of what she wants to do. Neither is appealing.

Or, she can just keep paying people to annoy us on social media. Good luck with that.

My advice to Bernie, if voters keep proving how stupid they are, is "just don't do it".

We all know what $hillbillary is. We have her record over the past 20-odd years AND her record before that of working for Barry Goldwater. We know who she is. She is far more odious than even junior bush and cheney. She is so odious, it's astonishing to me that she can even associate herself with the party of FDR and LBJ without bursting into flames.

As MojaveWolf said, we really don't know what herr drumpf will do. He claims to not be so interventionist... maybe he's sincere. He claims to not like our free trade agreements... maybe he's sincere. But we also know he's just another malignant narcissist billionaire who has always had one and only one motivation... greed. His greed can be tickled by the plut-archy to get him to agree to pretty much anything they want... so I don't see him being much better or worse than what we KNOW $hillbillary is.

So please, Bernie, please just don't do it. It will only tarnish your valiant run and temper your truthful message. You cannot endorse or even passively aide the devil incarnate just to thwart a different, probably equal devil incarnate.

That would be utterly contrary to your entire campaign.

Personally, I'd like to see him go Independent if D voters prove to be total imbeciles and see if he can cajole all those disaffected, frustrated Independent and sentient D voters to coalesce into a winning movement. But I certainly understand if he decides against that. It was a good fight and he did far more and better than I thought he could. And, no, it's not over yet.

Thank you, Bernie. Perhaps the last gasp of reason and altruism in a nation bent on self immolation.

The elections will remain irrelevant and a tremendous scam on the people until privately owned machines, proven faulty and easily hackable, are removed and replaced with paper ballots hand counted by third parties, preferably high school and college students.

The elections will remain irrelevant and a tremendous scam on the people until privately owned machines, proven faulty and easily hackable, are removed and replaced with paper ballots hand counted by third parties, preferably high school and college students.